Ever since the beginning of the rainy season, everyone at school, whether students or teachers, have been complaining about the heat. I have definitely noticed a little bit of a temperature increase, but I'm still finding the weather quite pleasant. The daytime highs here in Jeju have been around 26 and lows around 22.
But every time I walk into the classroom, the students are begging me to turn on the air conditioning. The last couple of weeks, the teachers have been turning on the AC in the teachers' room, which feels cold to me. I've been bringing my sweater to work since the AC is usually turned on. I usually wear a long sleeve shirt to work, which drives the students crazy. I've been asked a hundred times, "You not hot?" I tell them they eat too much spicy food and that they should lay off the Kimchi. I also tell them to wait until August rolls around.
My teachers always ask me what the weather is like in my hometown. Coming from California, the state with world record heat, I guess one would expect me to feel cold in Jeju. Well, I live on the coast in Southern California, where the summers are quite temperate, even more than in Jeju. I'm usually the first to complain when there is a heat wave and I can't handle summer visits to my family in the inland valleys.
So are the Koreans unable to cope with the heat? Or is it just in Jeju? Is anyone else on the mainland noticing this as well?
Comments
"Warm" weather
Submitted by Ogedei on
It's just 20-21 degrees celcius in Namhae. Occasionally, the teachers would turn on the air conditioning in the office even in this kind of weather. I also have students complaining about the "heat," but not too often.
When we came here in August, the heat and humidity was pretty bad. I'm just enjoying this current weather as much as possible.
"The Celsius Heat"
Submitted by bill on
When my high school students tell me that it is hot. I tell them that they don't know what hot is. I mention Singapore and other equator places. I mention my days in the Texas sun over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and my days on the plateau of northern Thailand where the temperature measured at 116 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, they have no idea what I am talking about as the standard here is the Celsius scale, and I can never remember the conversion equation without looking it up. Anyway it is T in Celsius = 5/9(T in F-32). The students are rather shocked that a raw egg will fry on Texas blacktop. They are more surprised when I tell them I walked barefooted on the same summer blacktop, albeit quickly. I don't have any adipose tissue, thus, the heat doesn't bother me. However, the Texas sun created thymine dimers within my skin cells, thus my perpetual red nose. Not red, I say, from the proverbial rum nose of W.C. Fields, although I must admit that aqua vitae aggravates the condition (acne rosacea).
It's getting hot in here...so put on a sweater
Submitted by prey4wind on
Well, it will certainly not get anywhere near 116 degrees Fahrenheit here (47°C so you can tell your students!) Then again there's always global warming. My friends in Jeju tell me that the temperature will never go above 35°C (95°F). So far this year, according to the weather channel, the hottest temperature recorded in Jeju was 29°C (84°F) and that was during the last week of June.
The rains have kepts things pretty cool here. Although I imagine
August will be a little steamy, but still not hot enough to need an air
conditioner. I prefer just letting my body adjust to the heat.
Early this week to really get on my students' neveres, I put on my sweater and said "it's cold in here, why do you want to turn on the Air Con?" I told my students you can't officially say it's hot until the air temperature exceeds that of your body. My students were all using their books as fans and only one student was cold; she had a cold. Eventually my teacher turned on the AC, because he too was having trouble coping with the 26°C (79°F) heat.
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